Alarmed by stalled projects, Mamata Banerjee tells depts to first earmark land

“This new process has been started mainly due to the Public Works Department (PWD). Recently, Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) came to know that due to unavailability of land many PWD projects were getting stalled and failed to meet the deadline. After learning about many such instances, the Chief Minister decided to start this new process,” a senior officer of the state government said on Wednesday.

According to sources, several departments have been getting clearances for their project from the Finance Department, but those are not getting implemented because of land issues.

Most of such stalled projects are related to the widening of National Highways like NH-34 and NH-35 where acquiring land has become an issue for the government. “Especially for NH-34, from Barasat to Krishnanagar, not a single acre of land could be acquired,” a senior officer said.

“At November 19 administrative review meeting in South Dinajpur district, the Chief Minister came to know that land was not available for NH-35 widening. She then ordered officials to first acquire land and then only start the project,” a senior government official said.

As per the new scheme, the departments will have to submit the project details, including the earmarked land, to the CMO first. After getting clearance from the CMO, then it would go to the finance department, and once the DPR is prepared it would be sent to the CMO for the final approval, the officer said.

This process will be applicable for all type of projects, including setting up new industries, construction of bridges and schools.

The same process was earlier adopted for government advertisement. It was then decided that all government advertisements should have prior approval from the CMO.

Open for talks with teachers, repeats govt

As the hunger strike of para-teachers over salary hike entered the 13th day on Wednesday, the state government reiterated that it was sympathetic to their movement and its doors were always open to break the stalemate.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Assembly session on Wednesday, state Education Ministe Partha Chatterjee alleged that para-teachers were not keen on negotiations.

“We are very much sympathetic on para-teachers who part of the strike. We had earlier said that our doors are always open for negotiations. If they give us a proposal, we will decide on that,” said Chatterjee.

He denied the allegation that the state government had withheld its share of salaries to para-teachers.